Designing WOMAN IN MIND

I knew immediately that this was a special project when I first talked with the creative team at the Sierra Madre Playhouse. They were looking for an iconic image to promote their production of Woman In Mind written by Alan Ayckbourn that supported their artistic vision. Christian Lebano, the director, came searching for me after seeing my graphic poster design for What the Butler Saw at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, and he felt I had the right sensitivity to take on their design. I am no stranger to Ayckbourn as a playwright, having designed graphic posters for six of his plays, most at the Odyssey. Christian loved the idea of seeing the world through Susan's eyes (the main character) like she is inviting us into her dream world with her unsatisfactory life (on the right) and her perfect fantasy family (on the left) that she takes refuge in. As a first person play, we actually see a split in two different worlds from her perspective. When we see Susan go crazy-- we go crazy too. Ayckbourn is always full of clever wit, and there are lots of laughs in this play, but there is a darker kind of comedy at work here.

Since so much of the play is seeing what is only in Susan's head, I thought a surrealistic feeling image was the way to go. The art if Magritte came to mind, especially his "man in bowler hat" images. After looking at his painting, Decalcomania (above, painted in 1966), I thought how widely disseminated in advertising and modern culture these images are. The public may not know the artist's name, but there is no problem recognizing this image... it has inspired artists for decades. Surrealism features elements of unexpected juxtaposition and can be thought provoking and witty. For example the clouds in the Woman In Mind design form what looks like a type of inkblot test (Rorschach technique test), which is used to examine a person's emotional functioning and personality after their perceptions are analyzed. And just like in Magritte's work, many of his portraits are without faces, or obscured by objects. In the poster, Susan's real and fantasy families have no faces... we learn about them only by color, shape and pose. And just like Magritte's man in bowler hat we are looking at Susan's back, out a window and into her garden. Even the surprise subtle design elements in the pattern of Susan's dress seems to be non-sequitor, like surrealistic images... a pattern made up of bees. In all, a thought provoking poster for a thought provoking play.
Click here for more information about "Woman In Mind" at the Sierra Madre Playhouse

Designing A NEW ENDEAVOR

When you turn over a new leaf you are starting fresh... you're green and new.


When I was asked to design the logo for a new theatre company in Hollywood, California I wasn't too enthused. But when I learned it was called NEW LEAF ENDEAVORS and what they were all about, I was intrigued. I wondered what kind of organization could NLE be? The name alone was something new and different for a theatre company. I learned that their aim was to create through theatre and new media works, productions that are based in the pure honesty of human struggle and emotion... and have a laugh or two along the way. So, that was enough- I wanted to be involved and design the logo.

When I started to design the NLE logo I wasn't sure if I wanted to use a leaf, but then I thought, "if I used just half of a leaf, that would symbolize the idea that only a whole leaf can be achieved (in a theatrical sense) when the audience is present... So, NLE is the organization and the public viewing the play is the other half of the leaf." With that figured out, I went outside and found a real leaf for reference from a tree near my studio because I didn't want a perfect leaf... I wanted it honest. I also felt like using texture with the clean look of the logo was very important.  As a result all the poster designs for NLE have texture that relates to that particular play in one way or another. It gives the graphics a kind of visual honesty.

The first two productions of NLE have been new plays. They opened with a drama, Tweaked, about dealing with the raw emotions of human addiction. When I set out to design the poster for Tweaked, the director, Sean Riley, wanted a single image involving a light bulb because it was a prop used as a pipe to smoke crystal meth in the play. Tweaked is a play about addiction and how six characters struggle to cope with the consequences. However, in the poster the light bulb gives off no light and the image of a woman is trapped in the bulb which your eye sees first as an electric filament... but you must look closer to see it's secrets. Her arms are reaching up in a hopeful glow and the texture at the bottom of the poster looks like cut lines of the drug. Not all the character's lives in the play result in tragedy... some move on to a better future.

The play currently running is The Laughing Cow, and it, on the other hand is a comedy about finding your own voice. This play is character driven with a much larger cast and multiple locations in and around a Hollywood studio. Using the script and writer of a television series as the central image, I used hands to show at least some of the characters that make up the corporate side of television production. The graphic design shows all the fingers that are involved on all levels "behind the scenes" and suggests the crazy things that happen to them (think: It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World.) The director, Lindsay Frame wanted the reference to the "cow" to be subtle, so printing it on the t-shirt of the writer with no face was the perfect solution. The texture on this poster is from a copy machine... a central set piece of the play... and never leaves the stage.

My next post will explore the surreal experience of designing Woman In Mind at the Sierra Madre Playhouse, in Sierra Madre, California.

For more information about NEW LEAF ENDEAVORS click here

Designing THE LAUGHING COW

                       

HAVE A COW, MAN

I really don't quite know how it happened, but I found myself designing graphics, set, props and projections for a new play that opened on Melrose Avenue last week in Hollywood. Produced by New Leaf Endeavors, the world premiere play is about characters struggling to have their voices heard in a fictitious Hollywood studio called "Gurnsey"... look familiar? The writer is Jessica Abrams and her source of inspiration was a career experience at Disney Studios. I connected with her script when I read it because of my own brief design career at Disney in the mid 80s. I literally worked there for about a week, but quit when I was expected to work all night because of a series of ridiculous events. When I didn't show up for work the next morning I was told (as cliche as this sounds) "You'll never work in this town again!" I'm serious. Years later, I couldn't help but laugh when Disney hired me as a freelance designer for countless movie posters. Not only that, but as an illustrator I created advertising drawings for Disneyland and The Disney Store... enough to make you shake your head and roll your eyes. So, I guess everyone has a "Hollywood Story" who's ever worked here. Maybe that's why I wanted to design for this play... it's part of MY story and the Disney connection (I admit it), made me laugh.

Like any corporate design job, I had to "brand" Gurnsey Studios... design the logo and create a laughing cow. I wanted it to look familiar but mostly RIPPED OFF... borrowed from everywhere... no new ideas here! (Yep, just like Hollywood.) The "dull backlot golden tan" was the color palette and that slightly deco studio style that says "we've been here since the 1920s!" The cow needed to look like it was originally hand drawn a hundred years ago, but has been re-drawn, revised and updated by their Gurnsey Studio in-house "cow expert" for 2012 (this is serious business... this cow is sacred.) On the set of the play, for a slide projected visual, I actually constructed a simple graphic of a vintage roof neon sign which included all the steel support beams. The point was to give the Gurnsey Studios a sense of history.

Stay tuned... in my next entry I'll explain the creative process for designing the poster and logo for "The Laughing Cow," man.

                           For more information about THE LAUGHING COW click here